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Bab es Salaam
Bab es Salaam (Arabic: الباب السلام "Gate of Peace"; Berber: ⵜⴰⵣⴻⵔⴻⵣⵜⵏⵜⴰⵏⴰⴳⵔⵉⵜ Tazerezt n Tanagrit) is a global organization that combines community building with militarism, radical traditionalism with inclusive evangelism, and international pan-Islamism with revolutionary ultranationalism. The organization first emerged among the Tuareg tribes of the Sahara as a response to increasing pressure upon them by encroaching megacorporate predation in the 2050s, but its origins reach back much further to the period of European colonialism in Africa. Bab es Salaam drew its initial inspiration primarily from the long history of violent rebellion among the Tuareg against a series of foreign oppressors, such as France. Following the ascendence of jihadist politics in the Sahara in the early 21st Century, precursor groups to Bab es Salaam began operating as quasi-state militias, driving out regional governments at times, but generally failing to acquire lasting influence. A key change took place in the 2040s, however, when the inheritors of these precursor groups started to incorporate seriously strategies of direct infrastructure development and social service deployment used by established Islamist political parties such as Hamas or Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood. Bab es Salaam's particular and distinctive contribution to the history of Tuareg insurrectionist statecraft has been to develop an international economic and social network capable not only of supporting increased independence in the Tuareg heartland but also of linking with peoples with similar goals and facing similar challenges elsewhere in the world. So far, Bab es Salaam's internationalization push has netted major success only in Central Asia, with much smaller but still noteworthy pockets of support in the Balkans and Indonesia, and among minority groups in the Levant, Arabia, and the Yemen. Perhaps surprisingly, influence has also soared among the disaffected of some North American cities, particularly in New York and Seattle. These last have become sites of major economic importance to the organization, and form the focus of their evangelical activity, and their centres of highest activity outside of the Sahara and Central Asia. While new converts bring some support, Bab es Salaam has needs rather beyond that offered by the ghetto denizens they serve, and typically turns to a variety of legal and illegal methods to raise the resources necessary to fund its community services and armed revolutions. The Seattle chapter has become particularly helpful in this regard, being of obvious use in selling mercenary services, in which they excel. While Bab es Salaam as a whole theoretically owes allegiance to the Amenokal of all Tuareg tribes, whether one person is even capable of controlling its diverse and dispersed activities is questionable. Indeed, doubt clouds the very existence of such a person, as no one is known, at least to non-Tuareg, to have held the position of Amenokal since the early 20th Century. Further complicating their already shadowy profile, the group has claimed no large terrorist attacks or other notable events in the recent past, and it is exceedingly difficult to determine their active membership, financial resources, senior leadership, or even general organization. Seattle activities: Each branch of Bab es Salaam appears to operate with a high degree of autonomy, and the Seattle branch, currently under the leadership of a charismatic war-mage named Amanar, seems to be focused largely on local concerns. Besides proselytizing, recruiting, weapons training, working as mercenaries, and funneling guns and money to and from the Sahara and around the world, Bab es Salaam runs a madrasa and mosque in the Auburn working-class district of Seattle, where they have garnered a sizable minority of followers over the last few years. They also devote extensive time to community outreach in the form of a soup kitchen and homeless youth shelter, literacy drives, counselling, and other services. Moreover, the mufti, Amanar, is known to the Auburn shadowrunning community as a principled warrior whose bullets and spells are well worth their high hiring price. Bab es Salaam's premises and presences are easily recognized by their distinctive logos. The official logo of the organization features the Roerich Pax Cultura emblem in its original maroon-on white background—three equidistant solid circles centred in a larger circle border—surrounded by a maroon horseshoe arch. Besides directly symbolizing the organization's name, the logo reflects both the lasting Russian influence in Central Asia—incorporated into the organization following its internationalization—and pan-Islamic ideology, referenced through shared architectural typology. Besides the official logo, some members also use the Tifinagh letter ⵣ "z," the traditional Tuareg tribal identifier, although its use is discouraged by the international organization because of its overly-regional denotation, as well as its association with militancy. Recently the tribal symbol was found at the scene of a violent attack in Auburn against a local gang. The gang, a small group of petty hoodlum racists who called themselves the New Confederate Sons, and who had been associated in the public eye not long before with the suspicious death of an Auburn dwarf youth, was completely wiped out in the attack. The Tuareg sign was apparently etched into the pavement near their bodies, probably by some sort of metal implement. No witnesses to the attack have come forward, and its motivations and perpetrator or perpetrators remain a mystery. Most curiously, the exact cause of the gang members' deaths could not be determined, and there appears to be some confusion on the part of Knight Errant and the coroner's office as to whether magic was involved. While authorities have been guarded in their comments, rumours abound that the gangers were all scorched to a crisp, and found fused together in a confused pile of bones and seared flesh. Perhaps needless to say, Bab es Salaam has denied any involvement in the event, and has suggested publicly that perhaps the Tuareg symbol was engraved as part of a misdirection or scapegoating on the part of another gang.